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(iii) That it will not form a precedent for future.

(iv) That the award of Master's grade to the concerned teachers would be personal to them."

This order of the Government is now sought to be interpreted and it has been so interpreted by the High Court of Punjab and Haryana in the judgment under appeal that those teachers who had acquired the B.T. or B.Ed. qualification subsequent to December 1, 1967 (the date on which the 1968 order came into force) and before September 5, 1979 would be entitled to the higher grade but with effect from September 5, 1979 only and that those who acquired the qualification subse- quent to September 5, 1979 would not be entitled to the higher grade. According to the judgment of the High Court under Appeal, the 1968 order did away with the principle of the 1957 order that teachers acquiring B.T. or B.Ed. quali- fication should get the higher grade and that a concession was shown in 1979 enabling the teachers who acquired the B.T. or B.Ed. qualification between 1968 and 1979 to get the higher scale from 1979. In our opinion this is plainly to ignore all the events that took place between 1957 and 1980. The principle that pay should be linked to qualifica- tion was accepted by the Punjab Government in 1957 and when Kirpal Singh Bhatia's case was argued in the High Court and in the Supreme Court there was not the slightest whisper that the principle had been departed from in the 1968 order. In fact the 1968 order expressly stated that the Government had accepted the Kothari Commission's report in regard to scale of pay was the linking of pay to qualification. That was apparently the reason why no such argument was advanced in Kirpal Singh Bhatia's case. Even subsequently when sever- al writ petitions were disposed of by the High Court of Punjab and Haryana and when the Government issued consequen- tial orders, it was never suggested that the 1968 order was a retraction from the principle of qualification linked pay. The 1968 order must be read in the light of the 1957 order and the report of the Kethari Commission which was accepted. If so read there can be no doubt that the Government never intended to retract from the principle that teachers acquir- ing the B.T. or B.Ed. would be entitled to the higher grade with effect from the respective dates of their acquiring that qualification. The 1979 order was indeed superfluous. There was no need for any special sanction for the grant of Master's grade to unadjusted JBT teachers who had passed B.A., B.Ed. That was already the position which obtained both as a result of the 1957 and 1958 orders and the several judgments of the Court. We do not think that the Punjab and Haryana High Court was justified in departing from the rule in the judgment under appeal. The rule had been well estab- lished and consistently acted upon. Nor was it open to the Government to act upon the principle in some cases and depart from it in other cases. In the result we allow the appeal and the Writ Petitions and direct the respondents to give the higher grade admissible to Masters to all the teachers who have acquired the B.T./B.Ed. qualification with effect from the respective dates of their acquiring the qualification. The appellants and the petitioners are enti- tled to their costs.